Notes from a paranormal investigation into the Rawls Hotel in Enterprise | News

The Rawls Hotel in Enterprise has long had a reputation for being infested with ghosts. Those yarns started during World War I. Shawn Sellers, a Montgomery man who investigates haunting and other paranormal events, had often heard stories about the Rawls when he would travel to Enterprise to hold meetings at the Wiregrass Shrine Club.

He loved to get the old Shriners telling ghost stories about the building. Sellers is the founder of Southern Paranormal Research, and conducted an investigation of the hotel, coming away with some intriguing evidence that indeed, some strange things were going on in the old building.

 He and his team of researchers will be conducting another investigation into the goings-on at the Rawls on Oct. 23.

 Here are some of his findings from the investigation:

 Some of the phenomena reported at the Rawls are lights being unexpectedly turned off and on, the smell of cigar smoke, doors opening and shutting and locking, the sound of children laughing, a girl running down the hallways, window treatments in the ballroom being found on the floor after being hung, a piano playing in the ballroom (where there is no piano presently), the toilet flushing repeatedly on the 2nd floor, apparitions, shadow figures and finally, a creepy feeling of being watched.

The basement is a dark, creepy area that also houses the electrical fuses and boxes for that part of the building. On one of our investigations, we were doing an Electronic Voice Phenomena recording session in the basement when I felt the atmosphere in the room change suddenly. At first, I thought I saw someone standing with the rest of the group but when I looked again, it appeared that the person was gone.

In the ballroom area, I had an investigator who felt nauseated. The investigator was

unable to decipher whether this feeling was caused by being above the basement, which emits a fairly high electromagnetic field, or a personal experience based on paranormal activity in this room.

During the E.V.P. session there, the handheld digital recorder got about 10-20 seconds of interference at one point.

On the second floor of the Rawls, we also had a number of interesting experiences.

In one room, we picked up a high electromagnetic reading. It was a steady reading and we were unable to determine if it was the wiring in the walls, floor or ceiling. Specifically holding the meter to the light switch, plugs or overhead light itself showed a normal reading. This room was currently under construction & unfinished.

During one session, one of the investigators asked directly,

“Are you the spirit who turns the lights off and on?”

Immediately after that someone heard a vibrating in his ear. During the second investigation, a ball of light moved across the ceiling at the top of the windows facing out into the walkway. There was no one around outside the offices and two people in the group saw this light travel across the ceiling.

While in the room that houses the copy machine, an investigator reported that the eraser to her

pencil simply disappeared. She and a few others tried to find it but could not. A guest mentioned to the investigator that “they play tricks like that sometimes”. During a ghost box session, an investigator asked if the spirit on this floor missed her having her office up there. The team then heard a voice from the ghost box reply, “Of course.” When the investigator asked if it followed her downstairs, the team heard a reply of, “Can’t.”

We had another instance in the room after about twenty minutes of investigation. One of

our investigators had been listening to the ghost box. He stopped listening and asked if one of the ladies who worked at the Rawls knew of any older, boisterous man that might have worked there that had passed away in the past 10 years or so. One of the ladies responded that she didn’t know of anyone.

 The investigator then said that the speech he was getting through the ghost box was very vulgar. At about this time, one of the investigators turned toward the door out into the hall and found that it had opened about five inches. The area was checked for possible drafts opening the door but they were unable to find a cause for the door to have been opened. They also discovered that the doorknob was broken. It was spun completely around. One of the employees

stated that this knob worked when she first opened the door for the investigation.

On the third floor, we have not had much personal experience except for the first time I

was there. Our team did capture an E.V.P. that time and we’ve had other Investigators state that while wrapping up their EVP sessions the atmosphere on the floor changed and that they felt an unseen presence was with them.

All in all, it is a place local to us that we will continue to investigate and research.

http://www.rawlsbandb.com/index.php/meet-the-ghosts

http://www.shawnsellers.com/radio-show.php

http://www.southernparanormalresearchers.org/

http://www.southernparanormalresearchers.org/apps/calendar/showEvent?cal...